Cruising Hawaii with Norwegian's Pride of America

In May, Jeff and I spent a couple of weeks away in Hawaii. Things to note:

• It was my first time going anywhere in Hawaii--and I didn't know if I'd ever get there.
• It was the first time leaving the kids behind. 
• There were a lot of other firsts--and I'll cover those in other posts.
• This was Jeff's second trip to Hawaii, the first being when he was a teenager. 
• It was also our very first cruise!
• And we were marking our 30th anniversary. Might as well go big or go home, right?  

The biggest part of our trip was the 7 night cruise--aboard Norwegian's Pride of America. Neither of us knew what to expect, and I was nervous about it at first, but the older me has decided to embrace new things and enjoy them. So that's what I did!

A delicious cake from our travel agent waiting for us in our cabin.

We took this trip with our friends-who-are-family, the Martins. They ordered a Bon Voyage package to welcome us on our first cruise, so this is what was waiting for us when we were able to get into our cabin. So fun!!

Part of the fun of the first day was exploring the ship. Here's some of what the Pride of America has to offer:

 This is the Liberty Dining room, where we enjoyed several delicious meals! This is the fancier of the complimentary dining rooms, so no shorts allowed here.

 Mid-ship staircase and pretty skylight.

This is the Mardi Gras Lounge. We didn't spend any time here, other than to see what it was like. We just didn't spend a ton of time on the ship--which I'll explain as we go.

This is the Cadillac Diner, all decorated 50s style. We knew our little grandson would have gotten a kick out of the car seats. This dining area is complimentary, and features comfort food options like macaroni and cheese, fish and chips, and a tuna melt that I enjoyed.

 Here is the gym on the Pride of America. This is only a small section of it! We had good intentions of working out here, but never got to it. With daily port excursions beginning as early as 7 or 8 am, and a couple of overnight stays in port, it was an active vacation to say the least. The gym wasn't needed!haha

Enjoying lunch on the sun deck the first day.

Getting ready to head out! The ship departs from and returns to Oahu. The first stop is Maui, where you spend two days in port.

Since an overnight in port means you can come and go as you please, we were out 'til after dark in Maui. The ship looked pretty all lit up as we returned.

Norwegian has not stopped the practice of towel animals on your bed every night. :) Our steward was the best in every way!

Pride of America has a nice theater. One night we really enjoyed their look at old Hollywood musicals. Mia would have loved it!

Cannoli for dessert one night! Delicious.

There are a couple of ports that aren't overnighters--Kona and Hilo on the Big Island. Here's Jeff doing some whale/dolphin watching as we sailed one evening.

So, what did we enjoy about Norwegian and their Pride of America? In a word, EVERYTHING. I will add that the beds aren't the most comfy in the world, but I can overlook it because literally everything else was amazing. From the ship, to the staff, to the food, to the itinerary, everything. In fact, we'd do it again for sure. You might have noticed that we stayed in an inside cabin. Granted, the ocean view rooms and balcony staterooms are really nice, but we knew we'd only be in there to sleep and get ready in the mornings, so the extra price wasn't worth it to us. And I'd still agree with that.

Here are the favorite cruise hacks we either learned from others pre-cruise, or figured out ourselves:

• Take a power strip with USBs with you. Cabins have limited outlets and this was a lifesaver for charging our phones, battery packs, and Fitbits all at once. 
• A couple of battery-operated tealights were the perfect nightlights at night! We set one in the bathroom and one in the cabin. They were just bright enough for middle-of-the-night bathroom needs. 
• The cabin fridge was stocked with liquor on arrival. We just asked our steward to remove it all, and he was happy to comply. We then had room for our water bottles to chill at night. It's probably easy to request ahead of time when you book a cruise, that the fridge be empty. 
• Make dinner reservations for the ship's restaurants on the first day. Those went fast before we realized, so a couple of our dinner reservations were a bit later than we usually eat. But the food was worth waiting for! 
• I took half a Meclazine at night, and half in the morning, and had zero motion sickness issues. And yes, the ship did do some pretty good rocking a couple of nights. But we slept like babies!
• Be prepared for when you get off the ship, that the ship will occasionally still move in your brain. Wacky feeling haha!

Shrimp and polenta

A delicious combination of virgin peach daquiri & pina colada. 

Tell your server you're celebrating something and they're happy to wish you well with a cake and a song. 

One last note for cell phone use on this ship. We have T-Mobile. We found out pre-cruise that we'd probably have cell coverage in all ports, until about 30 miles out of port. So we just upped our GB limit for each of our phones for the month of May and used exclusively cell service everywhere we went. That was cheaper than paying for the ship's Wifi! 

Are you thinking about cruising Hawaii? I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have. Just leave me a comment!